Julia stands by her mother's grave wondering why she is struggling to feel the same outpouring of grief as her sister. Perhaps it's because one woman was two very different mothers, and in Julia's case, that wasn't very much of a mother at all.

After a lifetime of never feeling good enough, of never meeting her mother's approval, or feeling loved, Julia sees her mother's death as a defining moment of change.

Impulsively driving to the coast (the only place she has ever felt peace) she makes the life-changing decision to not go back and in setting about a journey of self discovery through painting, she discovers the love of a community and gets to know the mysterious man on the beach who might just prove that she's loveable after all.